Mayor Pat Fule and Deputy Mayor Jason Montgomery recently sat down to update Strathmore locals on what they and the Town of Strathmore have been doing for its residents.

Among other things, Fule and Montgomery informed residents about plans for the development of the space previously occupied by Leroys Inn into the new highway commercial development and about the benefits of Strathmore leaving the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board (CMRB) on March 28th. 

The CMRB itself is a not-for-profit government corporation composed of a board of eight elected members from Calgary, Airdrie, Chestermere, Cochrane, Foothills County, High River, Okotoks, and Rocky View County. This board collaborates region to region to facilitate long-term growth and development for the Calgary Metropolitan Region’s 8 member municipalities.

So why did Strathmore leave? Mayor Fule explains why he and the Town Council made this decision.

“I felt and Council felt that it was a good regional approach for the towns and cities that are right close to Calgary, Wheatland County and Strathmore were far enough from away from the city of Calgary that a lot of the issues didn't really apply to us. It also took a lot of staff time to prepare documents, to read through projects that needed to be voted on at the Calgary meetings.”

The decision to leave was made final recently after a zoom meeting with Minister Ric McIver This mutual agreement was likely made easier for both parties due to Strathmore's and Wheatland County's distance from Calgary and their relatively small populations in contrast to some of the other eight member regions.

Mayor Fule added that he plans to collaborate with the regions closer to home now that the CMRB is absent from Strathmore and Wheatland County decision-making. 

“We as a town had more to benefit from and more we could help with in our own sub-regional area. We could do more by working with Wheatland County and Siksika Nation. More things could impact all of us by working together regionally as opposed to the Calgary area.”

Now that the CMRB is history the Town and Wheatland County will have to develop an Intermunicipal Development Plan (IDP) and an Intermunicipal Collaboration Framework (ICF). Since Strathmore and Wheatland County's involvement in the CMRB exempted them from drafting these plans in the past. 

Expect these new plans to be presented to the public in 2023, if all goes well of course. 

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